Arc 1 : The raven and the dragon

[This chapter tells how Ashlay and Hao Ming became friends. ]

Monday, May 12, 2014, Seoul.

The weather was very mild. It was barely seven in the morning and many students were already walking through the halls of their school. It was a popular high school that had many students from all over the world.

In the A class in tenth grade, some students were discussing the last game they played. Others had already started studying, some were reading, and others were sleeping.

"Hey! Listen !"

A boy ran into the classroom.

"We have a new student in our class!" He announced excitedly.

"Oh! A girl or a boy?" Asked another student.

"It's a boy." The student replied.

"And how do you know he will be in our class?" Asked a girl.

"I was in the teachers' room just now. I saw him talking to our homeroom teacher."

Although some were skeptical, the information had the students very excited. They were very curious to meet their new comrade. Some girls were hoping he was a Prince Charming, and some boys were wondering what his qualities were.

The bell rings at half past seven to announce the start of classes.

A few minutes later, the homeroom teacher of class A came in with an unknown student.

He was tall, with square shoulders, with a slightly tanned complexion, short brown hair and hazel eyes. The girls melted before him and began whispering happily to each other. Some of the boys couldn't wait to test him at a soccer or basketball game, and a few others were a little jealous of the effect it had on the girls in the class.

"Please be quiet." The teacher calmly ordered. "As you may have noticed, we have a new student."

The teacher turned to him.

"Go ahead, you can introduce yourself."

The young boy turned to the class.

"Hello everyone, my name is Nienrao Ashlay, I'm from Thailand. I've been living in South Korea for a few years. It's a pleasure to meet you."

He bowed a little with a smile. He had no accent when he spoke Korean, which surprised his future classmates.

"Thank you, go sit over there." The teacher thanked him and point a seat. "Nienrao have been home-schooled for some time for personal reasons. Help him integrate as much as you can."

The class agreed to the teacher's request.

Once Ashlay had settled in, the lesson began. He noticed a bag on the table behind him. It didn't belong to the student sitting next to it. His bag was hanging on the side of his table. Time passed and no other student appeared.

At the first break, many students, whether they were in his class or not, came to talk to Ashlay and get to know him.

"How did you learn to speak Korean so well?" "How is Thailand? I would love to go there!" "How many private teachers have you had?" "What do your parents do?" "Do you have a girlfriend?" "Can you teach me Thai?"

Ashlay was overwhelmed with questions. He had been very friendly from the beginning and had no trouble talking to others. Of course, he had not revealed all the details of his life. He had simply answered some questions, vaguely answered others, and hovered over the rest, pretending not to have heard them.

____

A week later, he was perfectly integrated. No one could guess that he had not had any real social interaction with people his age for five years. He also joined the Taekwondo club.

In the meantime, he had also learned that there was really someone behind him. It was a certain Bai Hao Ming. He was known for his excellent grades and a very asocial side. He only came to class for exams. He would mark his presence in the school by simply leaving his bag at his seat, then disappearing for the whole day, only to come back and pick it up at the end of class. Strangely, the teachers seemed to like him and said nothing about his absences.

Apparently, his cold beauty and taciturn nature gave him a mysterious look that attracted many girls. Consequently, he got into trouble with a few boys.

One morning, as Ashlay was walking with some new friends. He witnessed a scene of the most clichéd and ordinary: a declaration of love.

A pretty girl was handing a boy a letter with a box of cookies. She looked confident. The boy, rather expressionless, had very short hair and wore headphones around his neck.

"It's Seo Yu Mi from the class B in tenth grade." noticed one of the girls next to Ashlay.

"I thought she was dating Lee Young Suk from class C in eleventh grade." Added another girl.

"Wait, it's Bai Hao Ming with her." Said a boy in the group.

"Bai Hao Ming." Ashlay thought vaguely.

By observing him, Ashlay could confirm that Hao Ming was a pretty boy and was taller than him. But that wasn't what interested him. He wanted to understand what made Hao Ming so unique.

Back to the confession. Hao Ming politely refused Seo Yu Mi's declaration. She was rather disappointed, but insisted that he take the cookies. Then she went to her friends who were waiting for her and were watching the scene from a distance.

Hao Ming looked at the bag of cookies for a few seconds, then put his helmet on his head before entering a building.

At the beginning of the lunch break, an angry high school student, accompanied by other students, entered Ashlay's class. The name written on the badge of his jacket was : "Lee Young Suk."

"Bai Hao Ming! Where is he?!"

Unfortunately, no one knew the answer. Everyone knew that he was around somewhere, but no one had actually seen or talked to him since the beginning of the year. He was like a ghost.

The student, filled with rage, vowed that he would catch Hao Ming, and then disappeared into the corridors with his clique.

____

Two days later, at the end of the day, Ashlay, who wanted to get some rest, went to a music room that was not much used. He went behind a curtain in a dark corner of the room and fell asleep. Anyone who entered would not see him.

Later, he was awakened by the sound of keyboard keys. He looked behind the curtain and saw Hao Ming. Headphones still on his ears, he was deeply focused on a laptop.

Ashlay quietly stood up and discreetly approached the latter to see what he was doing.

Dozens and dozens of lines of code scrolled across his screen. Hao Ming was extremely fast on his keyboard, typing at what Ashlay described as an "inhuman" speed.

"Wow! Just like in the movies."

"Ah!"

Hao Ming was so focused that Ashlay managed to get close enough to him that their faces were only inches apart.

The young man was not expecting another person in the room and thought he was dealing with a ghost. But when he saw that his interlocutor was wearing the same uniform as him and laughing, he realized that it was indeed a human being.

"Nǐ xià sǐ wǒ le. (*You scared me)" Hao Ming said in Chinese. "What are you doing here?"

Hao Ming took off his helmet and closed his computer.

"I could ask you the same thing. And also... Ah! Yes, that's right. You never come to classes... My name is Nienrao Ashlay. We are in the same class, I was transferred last week."

"I see..."

Hao Ming stood up and was about to left the room.

"I'll have to find another place." He muttered.

"Wait!"

Ashlay stopped him and looked at him with a broad smile.

"Would you like to be my friend?"

"What?"

Hao Ming raised an eyebrow and looked up and down at Ashlay. He shook his head.

"No thanks. I don't need it."

"Everyone needs someone they can count on."

Hao Ming said nothing, put the back headphones on his ears and left the music room. Ashlay watched helplessly as his comrade left. Hao Ming fit his description perfectly, but Ashlay didn't want to stop there.

Over the next few days, Ashlay put together a plan to break through Hao Ming's shell.

Step one: Find the most isolated and quiet places in the school.

Step Two: Spend as much time as possible in the same room as Hao Ming so that he gets used to the presence of another person.

Step three: start talking and become friends.

Step 1 was long, but rather easy to accomplish. Step 2 was more complex, but it had paid off. At first, whenever Ashlay found Hao Ming, the latter would pack up and leave. But, he did not think that his Thai comrade would be so persistent and eventually gave up. When he saw that Ashlay was not bothering him, just sleeping or reading next to him, he accepted his presence. Step 3, however, seemed to be the most difficult. Even after two weeks, the two boys had not spoken to each other.

One evening, while leaving school, Hao Ming was caught by Lee Young Suk and his group.

In a secluded corner of the school, Lee Young Suk's two followers held Hao Ming against a wall.

Lee Young Suk held Hao Ming's laptop and threatened him with it.

"I finally got you, Bai Hao Ming." Lee Young Suk rejoiced.

"I don't think I have any quarrel with you.'" Reveal Hao Ming. "What do you want from me?"

"I heard that you were hanging around my girlfriend."

"Who?"

"Seo Yu Mi!"

Hao Ming sighed. He understood the situation he was in. He wondered what he had done to deserve to be in such a situation.

"I feel nothing for her. Do you want me to write you a document stating that I will never try anything with her, or maybe you want to film me saying it? So we can all go back to our lives and pretend that this childish moment never happened."

Lee Young Suk didn't like the fact that Hao Ming was so "cool". He felt like he wasn't being taken seriously. He was annoyed that a guy as indifferent as Hao Ming could attract so many girls. Suddenly, he had an idea.

"I don't really like the tone you have with me. Nor do I like the way you look at me. What if we change that?" He suggested with a smile.

Lee Young Suk lifted Hao Ming's computer into the air and made a gesture as if he wanted to throw it violently to the ground. Hao Ming's eyes widened in fear and he started to struggle.

"That's better." Lee Young Suk declared. "You want it so much? Maybe I should keep it and see what's inside."

Hao Ming looked angrily at his opponent. Lee Young Suk put the computer on a low wall behind him and came back to Hao Ming. He gave him a punch to the stomach and another to the face.

Hao Ming was thrown to the floor. He immediately tried to get up to defend himself, but he was threatened to break his computer. What they did not expect was that it would disappear.

"Where is it?!"Shouted the angry first-year student.

Lee Young Suk ran to the low wall to see if the computer had fallen, but there was nothing there. The object had disappeared. A voice was heard.

"It's that way! Yes, I saw them fighting!"

" Tch! Let's go!" ordered Lee Young Suk. "You're lucky, Bai, but don't think I've finished with you yet."

The group of students ran out of the school. Hao Ming had trouble standing up and felt pain in his chest. He tried to get up, but gravity caught up with him. He felt someone supporting him.

"Nienrao?"

"Yes. You owe me now, Bai."

Reassured to see that it was Ashlay who had come to his rescue, Hao Ming drew a faint smile.

"...Yes..." Hao Ming weakly replied as he lost consciousness.

An hour later, Hao Ming woke up on a bed in the infirmary. When he turned his head, he noticed Ashlay beside him.

"How are you feeling?" Asked Ashlay.

"Why do you want to be my friend?"

"All the mystery surrounding you made me want to talk to you to find out who you really are."

"Hmm? So ? Even though I just ignored you, you still want to be my friend?"

"Sure!" Ashlay replied with a smile. "I would like you to teach me some programming. That sounds very interesting."

Hao Ming stood up on the bed with Ashlay's help.

"I would teach you programming if you teach me how to fight. I have seen you in Taekwondo club, you are good." Hao Ming suggested smiling.

"No problem! Ah also..."

"What?"

"Your mother called earlier. I told her that you will stay at my house tonight to study. I thought it would be better that way. By the way, she was thrilled to hear that you have friend."

"Wait... you talk to my mom on the phone? You speak Chinese?"

Hao Ming's surprise was justified. Although they could speak Korean, he and his mother always spoke in their native language. So when she called her son earlier, she would obviously start speaking in Chinese, thinking he is the one who answered.

"I still have a long way to go, but I'm doing well. I also speak English and other languages."

Hao Ming was amazed and laughed slightly. Ashlay seemed to be a person full of surprises.

"Thank you. I will not have to explain why I'm in this state."

"You're welcome... And..."

Ashlay had taken his and Hao Ming's belongings. He turned around and grabbed Hao Ming's computer to give it back.

"Was it you?"

"Yes." He answered proudly. "I wouldn't have let you be attacked like that."

Hao Ming was very touched by this act. Even though they didn't interact much, Hao Ming realized that the young Thai would certainly change his lonely life. He was ready to try new things.

The next day, to everyone's surprise, Hao Ming started coming and staying in class. With Ashlay's help, he was also able to socialize.

After that, they talked about their passions and ambitions. Ashlay discovered that Hao Ming was actually a computer genius with a high IQ. Hao Ming learned that Ashlay was fluent in several languages, had a lot of knowledge, and had mastered several martial arts despite his young age.

Hao Ming's parents, who were in the import-export business, and Ashlay's mother knew each other way before their children met. They got along pretty well and had contracts together.

As they grew up, the two boys became very close and did many things together that strengthened their bond.

Ashlay had found a true friend whom he considered a brother, and Hao Ming was able to open up to the world in a other way.